In the shadows of the City

As part of a new generation of Russian photographers that emerged as the Iron Curtain began to fall, Boris Savelev’s photographs have come to exemplify a shift in how the rest of the world perceives Russia. A retrospective of his work at Michael Hoppen Contemporary in London earlier this year explored his oeuvre from the late ‘70s to today, tracing an emerging aesthetic that has been described as particularly Russian, but is truly Savelev’s own: both intimate and urbane, spontaneous and elegant.